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Thursday, July 31, 2014

BEIRUT – The extremist Islamic State (IS) has imposed restrictions on women’s clothes in the areas they control in the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor, bordering Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday.

According to SOHR, the jihadists have distributed a statement in Deir Ez-Zor province with rules for the clothing of the population in the province.

The islamist extremist group ordered women to wear a full “niqab” that blindfolds their eyes and an “abaya” or tunic which must cover the rest of their clothes and be wide enough to hide the shape of their body.

The “niqab” often hides the face but not the eyes, although it may cover the entire face.

The IS has also forbidden women from wearing high-heeled shoes and has warned all those who violate these rules they will face harsh punishment.

The IS proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria in late June.

The group started imposing restrictions in the Syrian province of Raqqa, in the northeast of the country, on January 20th, banning smoking and music, as well imposing the full-face veil and the closure of all shops before and during prayer times.

MEXICO – A Mexican journalist was found stabbed to death in his home in the town of Guadalupe in Zacatecas state (central-north), sources said Thursday.

Journalist Nolberto Herrera Rodríguez was found dead in his home Wednesday with more than 20 stab wounds, a spokesperson for Article 19, an international organization defending freedom of expression, told Efe.

Herrera Rodríguez served as a cameraman, reporter and editor on Zacatecas’ Channel 9 television and other media, and as well as in the public sector.

The office of the Attorney in Zacatecas said his murder could have been a crime of passion, although other motives must not be ruled out, Channel 9 news director Alfredo Valadez Rodriguez said.

Article 19 has called on authorities “to conduct a proper investigation to punish those responsible and break the cycle of impunity which creates a chilling effect on the exercise of journalism”, the organization said in a statement.

“It is necessary that authorities in Zacatecas provide security to journalists in the region and establish a public policy of prevention to ensure the exercise of the right to freedom of expression”, it added.

Valadez Rodríguez said Herrera was “hard working” and “a very active person”, who produced a news report and wrote on culture and news in general.

The Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression of the federal government last June issued a report saying that since the year 2000, 102 journalists in Mexico had been murdered.

Ten of the murders occurred at the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration in December 2012

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: At least 76 people died in Israeli strikes across Gaza Wednesday, including 16 killed when shells hit a UN school, sending the Palestinian toll from 23 days of fighting above 1,300.The deadliest strike was at a UN-run school in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where 16 people were killed and scores were wounded when two shells slammed into the facility, drawing a furious denunciation from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.In another strike on a house in Tuffah neighborhood in northeastern Gaza City, seven members of the same family were killed, among them four children and a woman, emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.In the southern city of Khan Yunis, a single strike killed nine members of the same family, including a child, Qudra said, and in a later incident, seven members of another family also died as Israeli tank shelling struck the city.Later in the day, medics pulled the bodies of another seven people from the rubble of a house in Khan Yunis, also from the same family.In another shelling attack in Gaza City, an 11-year-old disabled girl was killed, and a 16-year-old girl died in a strike on central Gaza.Another 28 people were killed in various attacks across the Gaza Strip as Israeli ground troops made a “significant advance” into the tiny coastal territory which is home to 1.7 million people.So far, 1,306 people have been killed and more than 7,200 wounded since the start of the Israeli offensive, which began with an intensive air campaign on July 8 and expanded when Israel sent ground troops into the Gaza periphery on July 17.Figures released at 1200 GMT on Tuesday by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA give a figure of 1,118 dead, including at least 827 civilians, among them 243 children.Of the 6,233 injured, 1,949 were children, it said.OCHA also said up to 240,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced by the fighting, with the UN agency for refugees saying more than 200,000 of them had taken refuge in 85 of its shelters. The rest were staying with relatives or friends.On the Israeli side, the conflict has also cost the lives of 53 soldiers, all of whom were killed since the ground operation began, as well as two civilians and a Thai agricultural worker who were killed by rocket fire.The army says that during its offensive it has attacked some 4,100 targets in Gaza, and militants have fired more than 2,670 rockets, of which 2,102 struck Israel and another 513 of which were shot down by its missile defense system, Iron Dome.Since midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday), 23 rockets have struck Israel and three more were shot down, a military spokeswoman said.

Monday, July 28, 2014

NEW YORK | A California man who skipped town after being accused of molesting a child was killed and three law enforcement officers trying to arrest him were wounded in a daytime shootout inside a New York City smoke shop, officials said Monday.

The suspect, wedding photographer Charles Richard Mozdir, was recently featured on a CNN show about fugitives produced by Auburn native John Walsh. He was wanted in a San Diego case and charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child younger than 14, according to a criminal complaint.

Officials didn't disclose details of the injuries sustained by the two U.S. Marshals and a New York City detective, but Police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters all three were in stable condition.

"We pray everything we are hearing is true and that these officers will be OK in the long run," de Blasio said.

The shootout between Mozdir and a fugitive apprehension task force happened just after 1 p.m. in the West Village not far from New York University in a highly trafficked tourist area bounded by jazz clubs, restaurants a subway station and basketball court.

"It was shocking and out-of-place," said Edoardo Gelardin, 24, who was heading to lunch shortly after the shooting when he saw officers loading the victims into ambulances and officers with assault weapons sealing off the scene. "It was a little overwhelming to see a scene like that."

A $1 million bench warrant was issued for Mozdir's arrest on June 15, 2012, after he skipped an arraignment in San Diego Superior Court on child sexual assault charges, according to Steve Walker, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney. He had posted $250,000 bail.

He had also been charged with attempting to dissuade a witness from prosecution, according to the criminal complaint.

His case had recently been featured on CNN's "The Hunt with John Walsh." Mozdir was accused of abusing a young boy while babysitting him and authorities later found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cellphone and computers, according to the show's website, quoting federal authorities.

Authorities have searched for him in Coronado, Georgia, California and Mexico, according to the show.

The San Diego County Public Defender's Office, which represented Mozdir in the child molestation case, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The violence recalled a deadly shootout that left a gunman and two auxiliary New York City police officers dead on another Greenwich Village street in March 2007.

That gunman, David Garvin, killed a bartender, according to police, and then turned crowded streets packed with storied taverns into a shooting gallery. Unarmed volunteer officers Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Todd Pekearo were killed.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: A Gaza park was attacked Monday, killing at least 10 Palestinians, including children, a Palestinian health official said. Israelis and the Palestinians traded blame for the strike.Children were playing on a swing when the strike hit the park in the Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City, said Ayman Sahabani, head of the emergency room at nearby Shifa Hospital.He gave the death toll and said 46 people also were wounded.The strike on the park occurred a few minutes after the hospital’s outpatient clinic was hit, leaving several people wounded. Camera crews were prevented from filming the area of impact at Shifa.Gaza’s police operations room, Civil Defense and Sahabani said the deaths and injuries were caused by Israeli airstrikes.Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, denied Israel was involved. “This incident was carried out by Gaza terrorists whose rockets fell short and hit the Shifa Hospital and the Beach (Shati) camp,” he said.The strikes occurred on a day of heavy fighting after a temporary humanitarian cease-fire as international efforts intensified to end the three-week war between Israel and Hamas militants.Israeli jets struck several sites in Gaza and rockets continued to fall on Israel, the Israeli military said, disrupting a relative lull in the Gaza war at the start of a major Muslim holiday.The United Nations on Monday called for an “immediate” cease-fire in the fighting that has already killed over 1,040 Palestinians, 43 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side. On Sunday, President Barak Obama telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for an immediate end to the conflict.___Goldenberg reported in Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Arzhang Davoodi is illegaly sentenced to death

HRANA News Agency – The attorney of Arzhang Davoodi has realized that Branch number one of the revolutionary court of Karaj has based the sentence on the former Islamic Penal Code.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Vahid Meshkani Farahani, the attorney of Arzhang Davoodi, has realized that Branch number one of Karaj’s revolutionary court with chief judge Asef AL-Hossaini, has based the sentence on verse number 186 and sentenced him to death.
An informed source said to HRANA’s reporter, “it is more than a year that this law has been obsoleted and there is no such verse in new Islamic Penal Code and maximum sentence for the charges of Arzhang Davoodi could be 15 years in prison (support and effective activities in regards of MEK’s goal).”
Branch number one of revolutionary of Karaj has sentenced Arjhang Davoodi to death but this sentence has not been submitted to Arzhang Davoodi yet. The attorney of Arzhang Davoodi appealed the sentence and the supreme court should assess the sentence.
During last two years Arzhang Davoodi has received two sentences of two and ten years in prison from branch number 26 of revolutionary court of Tehran while he was serving his first ten years in prison sentence. These two sentences and the recent death sentence are all due to his political activities from inside the prison.
Arzhang Davoodi is currently kept in central prison of Bandarabbas but prison authorities informed him that he will be transferred to a prison in Tehran province.

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to a UN-requested 12-hour humanitarian truce to begin on Saturday morning, and efforts to secure a long-term cease-fire moved ahead.Israel’s military said it would hold fire starting at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) but would continue searching for tunnels used by militants. A spokesman for the Islamist group Hamas, which is dominant in the Gaza Strip, said all Palestinian factions would abide by the brief truce.Fighting continued overnight as US Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to the region, has been spearheading international efforts to end 19 days of fighting.Gaza officials said five people were killed in Israeli air strikes, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 865, most of them civilians.Earlier, militants fired a barrage of rockets out of Gaza, triggering sirens across much of southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported, with the Iron Dome interceptor system knocking out many of the missiles.Israel on Friday rejected international proposals for a more permanent cease-fire, a government source said, but Kerry, speaking in Cairo, said no formal proposals had yet been put forward.The top US diplomat said there were still disagreements on the terminology, but he was confident there was a framework that would ultimately succeed and that “serious progress” had been made, although there was more work to do.

ALGIERS: Authorities have lost contact with an Air Algerie flight en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, Algeria's APS state news agency and a Spanish airline company said.APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH 5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, although other officials gave other timings, adding to confusion about the fate of the flight and where it might be.Spanish private airline company Swiftair confirmed it had no contact with its MD-83 aircraft operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.The company said in a notice posted on its website that the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 GMT but never reached its destination.An Algerian aviation official said the last contact Algerian authorities had with a missing Air Algerie aircraft carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algiers was at 0155 GMT when it was flying over Gao, Mali.Aviation authorities in Burkina say they handed the flight to the control tower in Niamey, Niger, at 1:38 am (0138 GMT). They said last contact with the flight was just after 4:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).Burkinabe authorities have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families of people on the flight.A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight."We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he said. "Aviation authorities are mobilised in all the countries concerned — Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."Whatever is the fate of the flight, the loss of contact is likely to add the to jitters in the airline industry after a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed over Ukraine last week, a TransAsia Airways crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday and airlines cancelled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

TOKYO – The 24-hour Japanese convenience chain FamilyMart announced on Wednesday it had stopped buying chicken from the Chinese company Husi, which was shut down after selling meat past its expiry date.

FamilyMart was the second Japanese company hit by the Chinese meat scam after McDonald’s subsidiary in Japan announced on Tuesday it would stop serving chicken McNuggets, which were also supplied by Husi.

McDonald’s Holdings Japan, which last year imported 4,300 tons of McNuggets from the Shanghai-based meat processing firm, announced it will resume chicken sales in its 3,300 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday, after finding new suppliers in China and Thailand.

The meat scandal has also led to the withdrawal of some of the most popular items on menus of fast food chains Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King and Dicos in China, all of which bought meat supplies from Husi.

The fraud was uncovered last week in a report on Chinese television channel Dragon TV, which led health authorities to shut down the Husi factory in Shanghai.

The TV released footage filmed at the Husi plant showing how chicken discarded after routine checks were repeatedly reprocessed to pass quality controls.

The report, made with a hidden camera and undercover journalists, also showed employees picking up meat from the floor and throwing it into the grinder to make hamburgers.

A Husi director told the journalists top company executives had allowed personnel to use expired meat to make hamburgers.

Husi is the Chinese subsidiary of the OSI Group, a food processing company with its main U.S. headquarters in Aurora, Illinois, that has issued a statement apologizing for “the problems caused or if any consumer has been affected.”

This is the latest case regarding food insecurity in China, one of the most serious problems affecting the country, where irregularities of this kind are on the rise leading to growing public concern.

This is not the first time that foreign fast food chains have been affected.

In 2012, KFC was involved in another such scandal when it was found buying chicken with excessive levels of antibiotics in Shanghai for two years despite being aware of it, according to local authorities.

KABUL – Six alleged Taliban members died in an air attack launched by an unmanned US aerial vehicle in the eastern Afghan province of Logar, an official reported on Wednesday.

The drone attack took place late Tuesday in the area of Baboos, near the provincial capital of Pul-e-Alam, said Din Mohammed Darwish, spokesperson of the local government.

At least six insurgents died when their vehicle laden with explosives was destroyed, Darwish said.

This was the fourth American drone attack this month and the sixth this year, according to Afghan authorities.

Over the past year Afghanistan has been the scene of the worst violence since the invasion of US troops led to the fall of the Taliban regime 12 years ago.

In 2011 international troops started to gradually withdraw from the Asian country and transfer security to Afghan forces.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force will conclude its mission in Afghanistan by the end of this year, while the United States has announced that it will maintain around 9,800 soldiers in the country until its complete exit in 2016

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

GAZA CITY: Israel shelled a hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 70, medics said.Emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said the 70 injured included at least 20 hospital staff, among them doctors.He said the third floor of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir Al-Balah had been hit, with an Interior Ministry official saying it was hit by Israeli tank fire.Palestinian television showed footage of wounded people, including medical staff, being treated after the bombing.The top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip says the aim of his group’s current battle with Israel is to force an end to the blockade of the territory.Ismail Haniyeh’s comments indicate that Hamas will continue to reject an unconditional cease-fire proposed by Egypt last week.Israel and Egypt imposed the closure in 2007, after Hamas took over Gaza from the Western-backed Palestinian authority.Haniyeh said in a televised speech Monday that “we cannot go back, we cannot go back to the silent death” of the blockade.He says “Gaza has decided to end the blockade by its blood and by its courage.”Turkey declared three days of national mourning for the Palestinian victims, denouncing the Zionist assault as a “massacre.”“We condemn Israel’s massacre of the Palestinian people,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters in Ankara in televised comments after a Cabinet meeting as the Palestinian death toll topped 500.“In a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people, three days of mourning have been declared starting from tomorrow (Tuesday).”Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal issued a joint appeal for an end to “Israeli aggression” in Gaza during talks in Doha on Monday.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – Pro-immigrant groups in North Carolina launched a campaign Monday on behalf of a community organizer detained while trying to board a plane at Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York.

Rausel Arista, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, is the father of two U.S.-born children who has struggled to get immigration laws changed since 2006.

He is currently a community organizer with the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte.

“We know that Rausel was returning to Charlotte after a personal visit to New York when he was detained by immigration agents. He is being held at a detention center in Buffalo in the process of deportation, and we’re doing everything possible to get him out of there,” LAC spokesman Armando Bellmas told Efe on Monday.

Arista came to Charlotte 15 years ago from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero in search of a better future and found work in restaurants, factories and construction sites, until 2012 when he decided to dedicate himself entirely to community activism.

He has taken part in national campaigns in favor of immigration reform with the American Friends Service Committee and the Keeping Families Together campaign.

His commitment to the cause of the undocumented led him to get himself arrested last October in Washington with another 200 people, including Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and five other lawmakers, in an act of civil disobedience in support of immigration reform.

The North Carolina immigrant community will meet Monday night for a vigil in a Charlotte church to raise awareness of Arista’s case and to call for having his deportation to Mexico canceled.

WASHINGTON – Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday announced that next month he will deploy 1,000 National Guard soldiers along the border with Mexico to deal with the avalanche of immigrant children who are arriving from Central America.

At a press conference in Austin, Perry justified his decision by citing the consequences of the child migrants’ arrival, as well as the fact that criminal bands are taking advantage of the Border Patrol’s focus on dealing with the children to increase their drug and people trafficking activities.

“I will not stand idly by. The price of inaction is too high,” the Republican governor said.

Perry’s name has reappeared on the national scene after the child immigration crisis broke and many speculate that he is considering another presidential run in 2016 after his failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2012.

Congressional Republicans in recent weeks have emphasized to President Barack Obama the need to strengthen security on the border to prevent the massive arrival of the children.

Bolstering border security is not part of the $3.7 billion plan to deal with the crisis proposed by the president.

Conservatives are reluctant to approve such a large emergency funding package to deal with the problem and even less inclined to do so when the plan, in their judgment, does not include a sufficient amount of border security reinforcement.

Perry, who has dubbed his measure “Operation Strong Safety,” also has asked Obama and Congress to hire an additional 3,000 Border Patrol agents in Texas.

Monday, July 21, 2014

HRANA News Agency – Police clash with indigenous people living in the village, “Koveh” in Qeshm On Saturday, 12th July, resulted in the deaths of three people and wounding six others.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), during discovery of smuggled fuel in the village “Koveh” of the Qeshm Island Three people were killed and at least six others were injured by police shooting.
Police forces also burned a boat belonging to the fuel smugglers in the beach of village and attempted to confiscate their properties.
In the images sent by eyewitnesses, some places destroyed by a truck that allegedly had been smuggling fuel storage.
Due to poverty, indigenous people of the Qeshm Island mostly work as fuel smugglers.
The names of those killed and injured in the accident are not known, also, Iran’s police website has failed to inform about this incident which caused the village people protests.
Pictures documenting the incident on Saturday in “Koveh” village:

MEXICO CITY – Police in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato rescued two girls, ages 5 and 6, and found the body of a boy who was murdered by his parents and buried in a clandestine grave, officials said.

Police found the girls, who had been beaten, and the boy’s body after receiving a tip from the public about child abuse at a business in the city of Acambaro, a Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office spokesman told Efe.

A citizen used ProcuarApp, a mobile application that allows citizens to send tips to authorities using their cell phones, to notify officials.

Police investigated the tip and located the property where the children were being abused in less than 30 minutes.

A citizen sent a photograph to authorities showing the two girls “obviously beaten and hanging by the arms,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

AG’s office agents entered the two-story building and arrested 35-year-old Jesus Nava Medina, who confessed that the girls and their mother were at his car wash.

Investigators found the girls in a dark room, where they were tied up.

The girls, who were dehydrated and malnourished, had wounds on their hands and bodies from beatings, the AG’s office spokesman said.

The girls told investigators that the adults had tied them up and one of the victims said they had a brother who had not been around for some time.

The woman was questioned and told investigators that her spouse, Nava Medina, murdered her 7-year-old son in August 2013 and buried him in a plastic industrial barrel in the yard of their house.

Investigators searched the property and found the boy’s remains in a barrel filled with cement and soil.

The coroner’s office determined that the boy died from blunt trauma to the head and chest,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

MEXICO CITY – DNA tests confirmed that remains found earlier this week in the southern state of Guerrero correspond to a French citizen who was reported missing in February, Mexican authorities said Friday.

Harry Devert, 32, disappeared in the western Mexican state of Michoacan while traveling from the United States to Brazil by motorcycle.

“The discovery of this gentleman took place a few days ago, today, unfortunately, we can confirm that it is him (Devert),” Guerrero state Attorney General Iñaky Blanco told reporters in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.

Plastic bags containing body parts were found along with the wreckage of a motorcycle on a road near the coastal city of Zihuatanejo, northwest of Acapulco, the attorney general said.

Devert disappeared in January in Michoacan, which borders Guerrero.

Joel Moreno Rojas, a resident of Zitacuaro, Michoacan, went to authorities on Feb. 5 to report Devert missing.

Moreno told police he had not heard anything from Devert since the motorcyclist left Zitacuaro on Jan. 25, headed for Zihuatanejo.

The Frenchman’s girlfriend, Sarah, received a text message from Devert on Jan. 25 saying that he had been “escorted” for 90 minutes through an area “that was too dangerous for me.”

“Apparently, there is another military escort waiting for me in another city ... I am being delayed by all these crazy things of the soldiers ... I hope to have a chance to speak with you guys tonight when (with luck), I finally get there,” Devert said in his text message.

Michoacan and Guerrero are among the most dangerous regions in Mexico due to the presence of rival criminal outfits battling for control of drug trafficking and other lucrative rackets.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Seven persons, including six expat women, were charred to death in a fiery crash as they attempted to jump a police checkpoint 185 km from Taif on Saturday.All six women, believed to be Ethiopians working as housemaids, were illegal who were on their way to Riyadh when the accident occurred.“Road security forces attempted to stop a speeding vehicle, but the driver failed to stop, prompting security forces to fire multiple shots in the air,” said Lt. Aati Al-Qurashi of the Makkah regional police headquarters in a statement. “The speeding car then vanished, but a mere 15 minutes later, police received a report stating that the car had tried to avoid the speed bumps ahead by driving into the opposite lane, only to crash into three cars and then an electricity pole, setting fire to a nearby fuel tanker.” He said: “The car was gutted with all seven passengers inside by the time Civil Defense teams arrived at the scene.”He added: “We can confirm that the victims were all illegal expats.” Acting Ethiopian Consul-General Sherif Osman told Arab News that his consulate was not made aware of the incident.Sources told Arab News that some of the victims’ relatives came to Al-Moya Hospital, where two of the bodies had been shifted, confirming their nationalities, while five bodies had been shifted to a general hospital in Zulm.Sources also confirmed that all of the bodies would be transferred to a morgue in Taif.Ethiopian men and women routinely infiltrate the Kingdom from the southern borders, heading to Riyadh and other cities in search of work.Five illegal Ethiopians were killed when their car crashed on the way to Riyadh from Najran three months ago.

GAZA CITY: Palestinian civilians in Gaza suffered the highest death toll since Israel’s aggression began, with around 100 killed on Sunday.President Mahmoud Abbas said the deaths in the Shejaiya district were a “massacre.” Witnesses spoke of bodies lying in the streets. Television pictures have been showing horrific, bloody scenes of dead elderly women and children.At the Shifa hospital, there is a traffic jam of emergency vehicles by the entrance. “The hospital was totally overloaded. For many of us, these were the worst scenes we’ve ever had, not only for the density of patients and total overwhelming of our capacity but because of all this pain and agony,” said Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, who has been working in the emergency ward.“There were children in enormous pain. Totally devastated families were bringing their dead children in and lying on the ground screaming.”Also on Sunday, the Israeli Army said 13 soldiers were killed in fighting inside the enclave.Meanwhile, the UN warned it was running out of supplies to help more than 50,000 Palestinians who have sought shelter at its schools in Gaza.The head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, described Israeli attacks as a “war crime.”“Elaraby ... considered Israel’s terrible shelling and ground attack operations in the neighborhood of Shejaiya as a war crime against Palestinian civilians and a dangerous escalation,” the Arab League said.A Palestinian cameraman and a paramedic were among dozens of people killed in the district. “Cameraman Khaled Hammad and paramedic Fuad Jaber were killed in a strike on an ambulance, while they were trying to evacuate the wounded from Shejaiya,” emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday called on its NATO ally the US to engage in “self-criticism” after it labeled his comments on Israel’s Gaza assault “offensive.”“If America still says ‘Israel is using its right to self-defense’ it is America that needs to engage in self-criticism,” Erdogan told the TGRT news channel.Erdogan said Sunday he was sticking to his comments, accusing Israel of using “disproportionate force” and killing Palestinians “mercilessly.”“How can we ignore this? How can a country like the United States turn a blind eye to this?” he asked. “As a member of the UN Security Council, it needs to act fairly.”As the violence raged, Abbas arrived in Qatar to discuss a cease-fire with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon due there later at the start of a regional tour to push truce efforts.Meanwhile, French youth defying a ban on a protest against Israel’s Gaza aggression have set fire to cars and garbage cans in a Paris suburb after a calm demonstration. Tension mounted as scores of Jewish youth, some armed with iron bars, encircled a synagogue to “protect” it.

SLIDELL, LA - Police in a New Orleans suburb say a health-food store worker is accused of using a $200 company check to pay a prostitute after a back-room encounter.

Surveillance cameras showed it all. That's what Slidell Police spokesman Detective Daniel Seuzeneau said in a news release. It all came to light when the store's manager reviewed surveillance footage after finding that a company check was missing.

Seuzeneau said 24-year-old Charles West remained jailed Thursday after being booked Wednesday on charges of theft, forgery and soliciting prostitution. Seuzeneau said he did not know whether West has an attorney.

Police say they plan to arrest the woman for prostitution once they identify her.

Chief Randy Smith said, "We can't make this stuff up ... I'm at a loss for words! This is unbelievable."

Saturday, July 19, 2014

KIRKUK, Iraq: Thousands of Christians poured into Kurdistan as they fled a Saturday ultimatum by jihadists who overran northwestern Iraq last month and proclaimed a caliphate.As militants attempted to break government defenses in strategic areas and edge closer to Baghdad, Christians joined hundreds of thousands of Shiite and other refugees into Kurdistan.Their flight to the safety of the neighboring autonomous region coincided with the expected homecoming of Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, after 18 months of medical treatment in Germany.The Islamic State (IS) group running Mosul had already demanded that those Christians still in the city convert, pay a special tax or leave but messages blaring on mosques’ loudspeakers appeared to spark an exodus.An earlier statement by Mosul’s new rulers had said there would be “nothing for them but the sword” if Christians did not abide by those conditions before noon (0900 GMT) on Saturday.“Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil” in Kurdistan, Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako, who heads Iraq’s largest Christian community, told AFP.“For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”Most Christians in the northwestern Nineveh province fled in terror after jihadist-led militants enforcing an extreme version of sharia — or Islamic law — launched an offensive on June 9.But many of the poorest families returned when the fighting stopped and IS started administering the city. Sako put the number of Christians who were still in Mosul on Thursday at 25,000.The Islamic State “seems intent on wiping out all traces of minority groups from areas it now controls in Iraq,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement Saturday.Other minorities rooted in the same province of Nineveh have suffered even more than the Christians, according to crimes HRW documented against the Yazidis, as well as the Turkmen and Shabak Shiite communities.

NEW DELHI: Thousands of people angry over alleged police inaction after a 6-year-old girl was raped at her school in southern India rallied Saturday to demand that authorities arrest those responsible for the attack.More than 4,000 parents and relatives of children who attend the school in Bangalore, India’s technology hub, shouted slogans against the school’s administration and demanded that police arrest those involved in the July 2 incident, which was reported only this past week.They carried placards that read “Enough is enough” and “We want justice,” and walked more than 4 kilometers (2 miles) to one of the Bangalore’s main police stations.Police said the girl was assaulted when she left her classroom to go to the restroom. They said she was recovering from the incident, but did not give further details.The rape has raised questions about the safety of India’s schoolchildren and sparked nationwide outrage over rampant sexual violence against girls and women. The school has refused to take responsibility for the crime.Angry lawmakers discussed the incident in the state assembly on Friday and demanded that the government of Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital, punish the school principal and other administrators who allegedly tried to hush the matter.The parents have said they will keep their children out of school until steps are in place to ensure their safety.Police said eight members of the school’s staff had been detained for questioning. The protesters squatted outside a police station and refused to move until the city’s police chief assured them the suspects would be arrested.Official statistics say about 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, a nation of 1.2 billion people. Activists, though, say that number is just a tiny percentage of the actual number, since victims are often pressed by family or police to stay quiet about sexual assaults.Indian officials, who for decades had done little about sexual violence, have faced growing public anger since the December 2012 fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus, an attack that sparked national outrage.The nationwide outcry led the federal government to rush legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalyzing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. The law also makes it a crime for officers to refuse to open cases when complaints are made.

Friday, July 18, 2014

GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel stepped up its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and declared it could “significantly widen” an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.Israeli gunboats lit up the sky with their fire before dawn while helicopters fired into the coastal enclave. Hamas fired mortar rounds at the invading troops and rockets across the border at the southern Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ashkelon.Palestinian health officials said 27 Palestinians, including a baby, two children and a 70-year-old woman, had been killed since Israel poured ground forces into the densely-populated strip of 1.8 million Palestinians on Thursday.The action followed 10 days of barrages against Gaza from air and sea and hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel.“We chose to start this operation after we exhausted other options and reached the conclusion that without it we could pay a much higher price,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters before a special cabinet session at Tel Aviv military headquarters. “The main goal is to restore quiet.”“My instructions...to the Israeli army, with the approval of the security cabinet, is to prepare for the possibility of a widening, a significant widening of the ground operation.”He did not say what form a widened operation might take. Israel says its forces have focused so far on seeking out tunnels Palestinian militants might use for cross-border raids.One such infiltration was narrowly thwarted on Thursday, with the army saying it had repelled 13 Hamas gunmen after they emerged from a tunnel close to an Israeli farming community.To back up regular forces, Israel said it was calling up 18,000 military reservists, adding to 30,000 already mobilizedHamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded with defiance to the Israeli escalation, saying: “Netanyahu is killing our children and will pay the price. The ground invasion doesn’t frighten us and the occupation army will sink in Gaza’s mud.”Hamas wants Israel and Egypt, whose military-backed government is at odds with the Palestinian Islamists, to lift border restrictions that have deepened Gaza’s economic hardship and unemployment.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

KIEV: A Malaysian airliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in east Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are battling government forces, Russian and Ukrainian news agencies reported, citing aviation and security sources.The Boeing passenger liner came down close to town of Shaktarsk in the rebellion-wracked region of Donetsk after disappearing from the radar and teams from the emergency services were trying to reach the scene, an unnamed security source told Interfax-Ukraine news agency

While dining at a sushi restaurant, a minor was shot dead. The young man was a neighbor of the colony Laureles Pino

According to the information, identified as Paul N, victim was in the company of family and friends in the place. According to witnesses the murder occurred when the young man came to the health of the place and was intercepted by a person who hugged him and then shot him in the neck.